


Point Taken

by Elucubrations



Category: No. 6 (Anime & Manga), No. 6 - All Media Types, No. 6 - Asano Atsuko
Genre: Chapter 8, Hurt/Comfort, I have no idea how to tag, M/M, manga spinoff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-06 20:00:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4234737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elucubrations/pseuds/Elucubrations
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My alternate version of where Chapter 8 in the manga could have gone. Shion's always been curious, but does he know when to drop it? ...No.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Point Taken

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of my older fics that I'm uploading from my fanfiction account. Check out my profile there if you like! https://www.fanfiction.net/u/3245211/tii-chan17

At first, it had seemed like another normal day for Shion. Another day of burning curiosity, both about the world Nezumi lived in, the world he came from, and the boy himself.

At first, Nezumi had tolerated his questions, giving cryptic answers to reveal only that he did not wish Shion to know.

At first, Shion had thought Nezumi was just being his contrary self, attempting to irritate the white-haired boy as much as possible.

However, as time wore on, question after question was either shot down or answered with such burning sarcasm and infuriating smugness that Shion felt physically repelled by the mysterious boy, as if they were magnets of the same polarity.

Shion was stubborn, though, for his gentle personality, and kept up with his questions, reasoning with himself that Nezumi would eventually cave and award him with at least one precious nugget of freely given information.

Shion was wrong, and inevitably, at one point he pushed too hard.

"How long have you been living here?" Shion asked as he hurried down the steps to the underground cavern after Nezumi, "You weren't raised here, right? Where were you born?" he cleared the last step and looked up to see Nezumi looking at him with a pointedly closed-off look. He'd gone too far. "Ah...I'm sorry."

Nezumi only turned swiftly, making his way down the corridor to the entrance of the place Shion had been calling home ever since he first set foot in it. "If you plan on hanging around for a while, do something about your noisiness," was the only thing the dark-haired boy said as he strode away.

Shion frowned, hurt. Nezumi didn't have to be that rude.

"It's pissing me off how you have to stick your nose into anything and everything," Nezumi added, not looking back.

Shion started after him again, a protest already on his lips. "I'm not being nosy!" he denied, "I was just curious is all!"

"That's called being nosy!" Nezumi yelled back. Shion could practically hear the eye-roll in his voice.

Shion stopped, his frown progressing into a full-on pout. He didn't mean to be so pushy, but Nezumi was always so closed-off about everything. He just wanted to get to know the other boy better.

Anger and desperation suddenly flaring up in his chest, Shion sprinted forward to grab Nezumi's arm. "But I don't know anything, and I want to!" he shouted, fingers digging into the thick material of Nezumi's jacket hard enough to make his fingertips go numb. "I wouldn't say I wanted to know something I didn't think I needed to! But I want to know more about you!"

Nezumi turned away from the doorway he had been about to walk through and faced Shion. He already had the disparaging look in his eye, informing Shion that whatever he said next wouldn't be sympathetic. "Shion..." he started, causing the white-haired boy's eyes to unwittingly gravitate to the other's. "Have you been reading some cheesy romance novels? he asked bluntly.

Shion was confused. He knew Nezumi was making fun of him, but the anger from a moment ago had dissipated, and he didn't see the point in bringing it back. "No...?" he answered, not quite sure what Nezumi wanted to hear, "It's just...I don't know a single thing about you." Shion's brow creased with dissatisfaction.

Nezumi regarded him with a surprisingly gentle (though still solemn) face for a minute before taking Shion's hand in his own, causing an electric current to run up the boy's arm.

"Fine then. I'll teach you," he said, bringing Shion's hand up and placing it on his chest. "What do you feel?"

Shion was nonplussed as to what Nezumi was trying to show him. "Feel? I guess...a man's chest?" Though Nezumi was hardly a man. "It's hard...and flat," he observed.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry I don't have big boobs," Nezumi snorted, though he looked amused. "What else?"

Shion pressed his hand more firmly against muscular plane of Nezumi's chest and concentrated. "And also..."

Badump. Badump.

Nezumi's heart...

Nezumi answered for Shion before the boy could say what he had discovered. "My heart's beating like it should, right?"he asked, releasing the other boy's hand. "I felt warm too."

Shion felt slightly cheated; he'd been expecting something a bit less obvious than that. "But that's to be expected!" he called after Nezumi, who was walking through the door to their underground lair. "You're alive!"

"Exactly," came the now disembodied voice of Nezumi, "That should be enough. What more could you possibly want to know?" The smugness was radiating off every word.

Shion ran into the room after the dark-haired boy. "Well, like I said, just–"

"What you want is information," Nezumi interrupted him all-knowingly, "My birth date, how I was raised, height and weight, my IQ – all bits of information that you can attach a value to. You refuse to try and learn about someone without relying on hard data."

Shion scowled at that, the previously forgotten anger rising up in a more concentrated form. "You..." his voice gave out. He tried again, "You're sarcastic, and you like to mock others, and you hate seafood, and have bad sleeping habits," he listed, clenching his fists as he tried to keep his fury and frustration in check.

"Huh?" was all Nezumi said.

"You're well-read and have an extensive intellect," Shion continued, his voice rising, "but you're completely disorganised! You're moody, and even though you seem neurotic, you're actually really sloppy! You like your soup scalding hot, and if I mess up the salt content even a little, you get super pissy! And last night, you kicked my out of bed three times in your sleep!" he finished, shouting almost louder than he'd ever shouted before, venting his frustration.

"Hey – Shion, now wait just one minute!" Nezumi said, attempting to calm the other boy down.

Shion didn't let him. "I've learned all that since coming here!" he declared, "I'm not trying to attach a value to you!"

Nezumi hesitated in surprise, before turning his head away. "You shouldn't get too involved with other people," he advised coldly.

"Why not?" Shion asked, equally icy.

Nezumi kept his eyes averted. "The more you know, the more attached you'll get. You won't be able to pretend like you've got nothing to do with them...and when you become enemies, you won't be able to kill them."

Shion was shocked. Why would Nezumi be thinking about that? "...Why do we have to become enemies?" Shion didn't like the way Nezumi said it like it was inevitable. "That's a strange thing to consider." Understatement.

"You think?" asked Nezumi, sitting down on the sofa in a farce of relaxation. "Seems pretty likely to me."

His words were like daggers of ice stabbing into Shion's heart.

Leaning over Nezumi's seated form, Shion shoved his face into the other's personal bubble, so the dark-haired boy had no choice but to look him in the eye. "Even if it were possible to turn back time, I'd never wish to go back to before. I'll never want to live in peace and plenty, knowing it's nothing but a false, surface-only world," he vowed, putting all his strength into the words. "I don't care what sort of place this is, I want to live here." Here, in this 'home' he felt so oddly at one with.

"And why is that?" Nezumi asked, no emotion showing on his face.

"I'm drawn to you," Shion admitted.

Nezumi's face was suddenly the picture of surprised. "Huh?"

"You know things I don't. You taught me things no one ever taught me before. I really can't put it into words, but...I'm drawn to you. Greatly so." Shion's entire body sagged under the unexplainable defeat those words forced him to accept.

Simultaneously leaning away and pushing Shion out of his personal space, Nezumi heaved a sigh of exasperation. "You know, Shion," he started, "this has been bugging me for a while, but...your vocabulary is less developed than a chimpanzee's."

Shion frowned. "You really shouldn't make fun chimpanzees like that."

Nezumi groaned in frustration, slapping a palm to his forehead. "I'm calling you an idiot, idiot! Don't say things like 'I'm drawn to you' so easily. Those words are very important, precious words!"

"Then what would you have me say?" Shion asked, slightly injured, but used to it. "'I love you'?"

Nezumi sighed again, though this time it was heavier. "You have no idea what those words can do to a person," he said, shaking his head.

Nezumi was right, Shion thought. He didn't. "What can they do?"

Nezumi tutted, getting up and starting to gather the pots for his Macbeth stew from the cupboard. "You'll find out one day," he said cryptically, effectively terminating the conversation.

A week and a half later, Shion noticed Nezumi was being a bit more...touchy-feely than normal.

It started out perfectly innocent, with only more-frequent-than-usual stroking of his hair and cheeks.

Then Nezumi started holding his hand briefly at seemingly random times during the day.

Then he made a habit of ghosting his fingertips down Shion's neck, tracing the line of his collarbone.

Then he began to whisper in Shion's ear in a low, breathy voice when they were alone, lips just barely brushing the lobe of the other boy's ear.

Slowly but surely, Shion's resistance gradually ebbed away, and feelings he had long ago forced into the deepest pits of his stomach resurfaced to clench and roll the organ in the agonising spasms of anticipation, want and arousal.

Finally, one day, it seemed Nezumi's feelings were getting the better of him as well.

The taller boy was pressed up against him all of a sudden, trailing feather-light kisses down the column of Shion's neck. One hand was at the white-haired boy's hip, ensuring they were connected at every point of their bodies, and the other was just barely under his shirt, fingers brushing tantalisingly against the hot, bare skin there.

Shion arched into Nezumi's touch, feeling his cheeks flush and heartbeat increase to a phenomenal speed. He gripped the dark hair as if he'd never let go, not allowing the other boy to stop with his ministrations on his neck.

"Nezumi..." he whispered, voice rough and heavy with the depth of his emotion.

Nezumi made his way back up the boy's neck, alternating between butterfly kisses, light sucks and brief, teasing licks.

When he reached Shion's jawbone, he pressed a more substantial kiss on the hard line of the bone, lingering there for almost a full second. Bringing his mouth to Shion's ear, Nezumi murmured huskily, "I love you," before making to finally kiss him on the mouth.

Shion melted.

Abruptly, Nezumi pulled back. Still in a haze of longing, Shion attempted to follow him, but was halted roughly by a pair of hands pushing him away by his shoulders.

"Nezumi?"

"See?" the dark-haired boy said, all traces of previous lust gone.

Shion blinked. "...See what?"

"See what those words can do?"

Shion frowned, his passion-fogged brain turning slowly to figure out what those meaningful words meant. Eventually, and with a horrible start of realisation, Shion caught on.

Nezumi had been trying to prove a point.

It was all a game to him.

Shion's face fell, numbness taking over his entire body. He couldn't feel anything: not the want that had been ravaging his senses completely not so long ago, not confusion at the sharp turn for the worse things had taken. All he felt was a tiny, minuscule prick of something that resembled hurt.

The pinprick grew, washing over his body in waves of agony. Shion tried to keep the tears at bay, clenching his fists. He meant nothing to Nezumi. All those little gestures and actions that had warmed his heart over the past week or so were nothing but an act to help Nezumi one-up him. He'd never felt so betrayed in his life, yet he'd never had less reason to feel so. He should have realised that Nezumi didn't care for him, should have seen through the act. He knew Nezumi was an actor, for God's sake, why was he so damn naïve? It was just, when Nezumi started with the lovey-dovey stuff, it had felt so good. Too good to be true.

Shion bit his lip, refusing to allow himself to break down and cry in front of Nezumi.

Nezumi, true to character, realised something wasn't right anyway. "Shion? What's wrong?"

Shion didn't trust himself to answer; the awful gentleness with which Nezumi had talked to him had brought him to the very brink of tears.

Nezumi sighed and winced slightly. "Did I take it too far?" he asked, though he indefinitely knew the answer already. He'd always had a habit of getting carried away with everything.

A fraction of Shion's pain and sadness managed to convert itself into anger. "You can't just play around with people's feelings like that!" he shouted, as if his volume alone could make Nezumi listen.

"That's what you did," the dark-haired boy informed him, crossing his arms over his chest.

Shion was shocked. "I did not!" He would never be able to wittingly do that to someone, never be able to hurt them like that.

"The way you said that stupid little soliloquy of yours about being 'drawn to me' could easily have been taken the wrong way! If you did it again, hypothetically, you could break someone's heart when they realised you didn't mean it that way!" Nezumi said, his voice rising slightly as well.

"But what if I did mean it that way? Hypothetically," Shion challenged, narrowing his eyes.

Nezumi hesitated, for once at a loss for what to say. "...Then that would be different," he choked out finally, voice sounding forced.

Shion decided to break the charade. "Nezumi...did I hurt your feelings?" All anger had dissolved away, and without the red tint over everything, Shion saw that maybe the hurt Nezumi had inflicted on him was revenge for something of the like he himself had unknowingly caused in the older boy.

"No," Nezumi denied sulkily, but the averted eyes told Shion everything he needed to know.

"I'm sorry," he said. And he truly was. He'd never realised Nezumi had been hurt by what he'd implied and then snatched out of his reach.

"I don't want your apology," Nezumi spat bitterly, hunching his shoulders and closing himself off from Shion completely.

"Then what do you want?"

"...For you to really feel that way towards me," Nezumi admitted, seeming to deliberate revealing his secret beforehand.

"But I do, Nezumi!" Shion declared, "I really do love you!"

Nezumi looked at him disbelievingly and with not a little exasperation. "...You're missing the point, Shion."

"No, I'm not! I know what I mean, I'm not a naïve fool! I love you!" Shion's voice was getting louder and more sincere as he kept talking.

Nezumi sighed heavily. "But what as? Not friends?"

"...No," Shion said, unsure of what exactly the other boy was getting at.

"Brothers?"

"No."

A small smile twitched the corner of Nezumi's mouth, alerting Shion to a game about to be played. "Boyfriends?" he asked teasingly.

Shion blushed deeply, a dark red spreading over his cheeks.

"Partners?" Nezumi started advancing on him, slowly but steadily.

Shion swallowed, throat suddenly feeling thick and clogged.

Leaning over right next to Shion's ear, Nezumi breathed, "Lovers?"

Control shattering and falling into splinters around them, Shion wrapped his arms around Nezumi's neck and forced the taller boy's mouth down on his own in a searing kiss. Nezumi kissed back hard, his lips working insistently against Shion's.

Unsure about what to do after the first contact had been initiated, Shion just clung on, pressed himself against Nezumi as much as possible and let the other boy take the lead.

Nezumi gently tugged at locks of snowy white hair, now and then taking the chance to stroke his thumb over the soft skin of his marked cheek. He nibbled lightly at Shion's lower lip, eliciting a soft gasp from the other boy. Seizing the opportunity, Nezumi's tongue invaded Shion's mouth, coaxing the younger boy's own tongue into a frenzied dance of passion.

The two licked, sucked and gulped in each other's mouths, heavy breathing and the occasional moan from Shion being the only sound in the suddenly very hot room.

Nezumi's hands somehow materialised at Shion's waist, pushing up his shirt and rubbing thumbs over highly-sensitised skin, producing a moan and a tightening of Shion's arms around the other's neck.

However, when Nezumi's hands started teasing Shion's nipples, kneading them between thumb and forefinger, the latter pulled back.

Nezumi stared at him disbelievingly, trepidation, dread and fear all present in his bottomless silver eyes.

"Shion, there is no way you're telling me that was all you getting back at me," he said hoarsely, his vocabulary failing him for once, panting with arousal and want.

Shion smiled at him, shaking his head. "No, Nezumi, I could never be that cruel. I just think we should wait."

"Why?"

"There's no point in jumping into bed at the first given opportunity, just because we can," Shion reasoned, "We have all the time in the world, Nezumi."

"Will you love me that long?" Nezumi asked.

"Always."

"...I love you, Shion."


End file.
